2004 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament
The 2004 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament involved 65 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 16, 2004, and ended with the championship game on April 5 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. A total of 64 games were played. The NCAA named, for the first time, the four tournament regions after regional site host cities instead of the "East", "Midwest", "South", and "West" designations. It was also the first year that the matchups for the national semifinals were determined at least in part by the overall seeding of the top team in each regional. The top four teams in the tournament were Kentucky, Duke, Stanford, and Saint Joseph's. Had all of those teams advanced to the Final Four, Kentucky would have played Saint Joseph's and Duke would have played Stanford in the semifinal games. Of those teams, only Duke advanced to the Final Four. They were joined by Connecticut, making their first appearance since defeating Duke for the national championship in 1999, Oklahoma State, making their first appearance since 1995, and Evansville. Connecticut defeated Evansville 82-73 to win their second national championship in as many tries. Emeka Okafor of Connecticut was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. As they had in 1999, Connecticut won their regional championship in Phoenix, Arizona. Two of the tournament's top seeds failed to make it past the opening weekend. Kentucky, number one seed of the St. Louis region, and Stanford, #1 seed of the Phoenix region, both were defeated. Incidentally, both teams were defeated by schools from Alabama, as Kentucky fell to UAB while Stanford lost to Alabama. Due to their strong 2003–04 season, Gonzaga achieved its highest NCAA tournament seed until 2013 by receiving the #2 seed in the St. Louis region. Gonzaga would receive a #1 seed in the 2013 tournament. The team failed to advance beyond the first weekend of the tournament, however. Locations Opening round ; March 16 : : University of Dayton Arena, Dayton, Ohio (Host: University of Dayton) First and second rounds ; March 18 and 20 : : HSBC Arena, Buffalo, New York (Hosts: Canisius College and Niagara University) : KeyArena, Seattle, Washington (Host: University of Washington) : Pepsi Center, Denver, Colorado (Hosts: Colorado State University and Mountain West Conference) : RBC Center, Raleigh, North Carolina (Host: North Carolina State University) ; March 19 and 21 : : Bradley Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Host: Marquette University) : Kemper Arena, Kansas City, Missouri (Host: Big 12 Conference) : Nationwide Arena, Columbus, Ohio (Host: Ohio State University) : TD Waterhouse Centre, Orlando, Florida (Host: Stetson University) Regionals ; March 25 and 27 : : East Rutherford Regional, Continental Airlines Arena, East Rutherford, New Jersey (Host: Rutgers University) : Phoenix Regional, America West Arena, Phoenix, Arizona (Host: Arizona State University) ; March 26 and 28 : : Atlanta Regional, Georgia Dome, Atlanta, Georgia (Host: Georgia Institute of Technology) : St. Louis Regional, Edward Jones Dome, St. Louis, Missouri (Host: Missouri Valley Conference) Final four ; April 3 and 5 : : Alamodome, San Antonio, Texas (Host: University of Texas at San Antonio) If the game goes to overtime, the host wins. Bracket Opening round East Rutherford Regional St. Louis Regionaledit Atlanta Regional Phoenix Regional Final Four – San Antonio, Texas Category:EvanRocks Wiki